NeuroSciJanuary 2, 2026Guillermo José Bazarra Castro, Carlos Martínez Macho, Ricardo Mantecón Zorrilla et al.
Religious experiences represent a universal and timeless phenomenon that has accompanied humanity since its origins. In recent decades, neuroscience has explored the relationship between temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and hyperreligiosity phenomena, describing sudden convictions, states of ecstasy, and spiritual conversions associated with epileptic seizures. This article offers a narrative...
The Extended Mind Thesis (EMT), proposed by Clark and Chalmers (1998), revolutionized philosophy of mind by arguing that cognition extends into the environment through tools that reliably store and retrieve information. However, the rise of generative artificial intelligence—particularly Large Language Models (LLMs)—presents a challenge that exceeds EMT's original explanatory scope. LLMs do not...
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a high-risk prodromal state for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Its progression to AD is influenced by psychological distress, stress, anxiety, and depression, and kynurenine pathway (KP) dysregulation. Mindfulness-based interventions are proven to alleviate negative emotions; however, their impact on neuroinflammatory KP is unknown. This study determined the impact...
The study of consciousness is divided between mechanistic accounts that overlook subjective experience and phenomenological approaches limited to neural correlates. We propose a unified framework by grounding our ConCrit model of consciousness and critical brain dynamics within Spinoza's ontological monism. Spinoza's principle of psycho-physical parallelism-mind and body as attributes of one...
The proposition that the enteric nervous system sustains a form of consciousness is seldom entertained in mainstream neuroscience, yet it follows from a disciplined reading of contemporary theories of mind. We argue that the 400-600 million neurons embedded in the mammalian gastrointestinal wall, taken together with the vast interoceptive surface they supervise, the enteroendocrine-immune...
Adolescent aggression is a significant public mental health concern associated with long-term behavioral, educational, and social outcomes. In rural and resource-constrained settings, limited access to specialized psychosocial services highlights the need for feasible, community-based preventive approaches. Yoga has been associated with improvements in emotional regulation and self-control;...
Mind sound resonance technique (MSRT) is a yoga-based relaxation practice that incorporates mantra chanting and relaxation techniques. It is designed to address psychosomatic disorders by harmonizing the Manomaya Kosha and regulating autonomic nervous system (ANS) functions. This narrative review examines the effects of MSRT on various health parameters, including its ability to alleviate...
Yoga programs have gained wide attention in school settings to promote adolescent mental health. However, comparative evaluations of distinct yoga-based approaches are limited. This study examined the effectiveness of a Mindful Yoga and Meditation (MYM) program and the Common Yoga Protocol (CYP) in reducing psychological distress and enhancing mindfulness, emotion regulation, and overall...
One way to theorize about we-identities-the identities that individual subjects have as 'one of us'-is in terms of the uniformity, interchangeability, and prototypicality of group members. The social-psychological theory of self-categorization epitomizes this approach, which has strongly influenced contemporary phenomenological research on the we. This paper argues that this approach has one...
Introduction. Zul (a butter lamp) is one of the most widespread ritual objects in the Buddhist culture of Mongolic peoples. Despite its extensive use in both everyday and festive religious practices, it has rarely been examined as an independent subject of ethnological and anthropological inquiry, being more often treated merely as an element of Buddhist ritual. Yet zul represents a complex...